The other Piers Morgan petition

12/26/12 10:23 AM EST

While the petition to deport British CNN anchor Piers Morgan has just topped 70,000 — almost three times the number of signatures needed to require a formal White House response — an alternative petition still has a ways to go.

Its cause: "We want to keep Piers Morgan in the USA. There are two very good reasons for this," the authors of the petition write. "Firstly, the first amendment. Second and the more important point. No one in the U.K. wants him back."

"Actually, there is a third," they add. "It will be hilarious to see how loads of angry Americans react."

Morgan became a lightning rod in the ongoing gun control debate when he spoke out against pro-gun advocates last week. Morgan called Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners for America, "dangerous," "stupid," and "an idiot." The next night, he told John Lott, the author of More Guns, Less Crime that he needed "to stop repeating a blatant lie about what happens in other countries."

The original petition to deport Morgan passed the 25,000-signature threshold on Monday, and thus requires a response from the Obama administration. It charges him with trying "to undermine the Bill of Rights and for exploiting his position as a national network television host to stage attacks against the rights of American citizens."

Morgan has taken the matter in stride: “Merry Christmas! Even to those who want me deported,” he wrote on Twitter.